OUR OPINION: Bravo, Quincy, Sen. Murray! But where are you, Governor?

Saturday

May 10, 2014 at 7:00 PM

QUINCY – It all began with one Quincy mother’s plea for help.

After Nancy Holler’s son overdosed on heroin in their home in 2009 and she had to wait five agonizing minutes for paramedics to arrive, she went to Mayor Tom Koch and asked why don’t police, often first on every scene, carry Narcan?

To his credit, Koch called Police Chief Paul Keenan and asked him to arm each and every officer with Narcan. He did.

By 2010, all Quincy police began carrying Narcan and, as a result, 249 overdoses have been reversed. It also became a nationwide model for other police departments, recognized by the White House.

But even before that, Koch formed the Mayor’s Substance Abuse Task Force soon after taking office in 2008. In addition to representatives from the mayor’s office and Police Department, they gathered people from social service agencies, the School Department, clergy and families of those addicted to drugs to brainstorm solutions.

Braintree created a similar committee in 2011, and this week, Weymouth announced it too was appointing a committee to help find solutions to substance abuse.

We cannot commend each community enough for recognizing and then taking action against the overdose epidemic. It demonstrates excellent leadership. But we have to ask why local cities and towns have been left on their own for so long?

The overdose epidemic, though grievously worse in recent months, is not new. We’ve been reporting on it for years, ever since we launched our groundbreaking series “The Killer Next Door.”

All year, we’ve written editorials to Gov. Deval Patrick asking that he form a statewide special task force to address the overdose epidemic. Certainly, we need a national push, but as the Massachusetts Health Council reported in 2012, the South Shore has the country’s highest rate of emergency room visits involving illegal drug use. We are ground zero.

In March, we delivered our editorials, your commentaries and more than 50 letters we asked you to write to the governor asking him to create a comprehensive special task force to address the scourge of drug abuse and overdoses. After receiving them, Patrick called us to say our paper has been a leader on this issue and that he had spoken to people affected by addiction who were encouraged to reach out to him because of our work.

That same day, he attempted to block the in-state sale of Zohydro, a powerful new opioid that isn’t tamper resistant. A judge blocked his efforts. But as far as a comprehensive approach to addressing this epidemic – nothing.

Fortunately, someone at the state level has been listening. On Thursday, Senate President Therese Murray introduced legislation, “An Act to Increase Opportunities for Long-Term Substance Abuse Recovery,” which, if passed by the Legislature, will not only track overdose deaths, but strengthen the Prescription Monitoring Program initiated by Quincy Sen. John Keenan.

Most important, it would require insurance carriers to cover substance abuse programs and set up statewide standards for treatment. That key point would enable facilities to open in-state so families won’t have to ship their loved ones off to Florida, away from their support systems, for long-term care. In January, Murray also created the Special Committee on Drug Abuse and Treatment Options. The Senate president has shown the kind of leadership on this crisis that Patrick lacks and our state needs. Brava, Madame President.

It’s not too late for Patrick to do something more. We call on him once again to create a special task force with members from local, state and federal governments; public and private agencies; and families of those addicted. Make saving this and the next generation from drug addiction your legacy, Gov. Patrick.

If not, it appears that, like the movement to reform FEMA’s grossly unfair flood insurance and maps, the movement to shape the nation’s response to the overdose epidemic will have had its start in one community after one mother’s plea for help.

What that means is it will take longer than it should while more people die.